An Uncommon guardian
by specter237
Summary: What can be a more uncommon guardian than a Spartan? One spartan finds himself acting as a parental guardian to two children that lost everything and are willing to fight alongside him. (planning to be multiple chapters)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

The city was in chaos, buildings were burning and falling apart everywhere. Anti-air guns could be heard for miles as they attempted to fight off the attackers. Plasma bombs detonated randomly through out the city as banshees continued to pepper the already crumbling defense grid. Below on the streets of the city things were not going well for the defenders. A covenant patrol had finished clearing out a group of marines their defense position. The elite motioned to the grunts to continue down the street. They were just about to walk past an ally when one of the grunts made an exciting squeak and ran down the ally. The elite snarled in annoyance and followed. It found the grunt trying to get into a pile of rubble. He was about to yell at the grunt when he heard a frightened scream come from the rubble. The other grunts quickly joined in to reach the human inside. The elite decided to let them try and catch the human, after all they haven't eaten fresh meat in a while. Unknown to the patrol was the figure in the exhaust vent watching them.

He looked at the ammo counter on his battle rife. "Crap only half a clip." he muttered. He heard another scream. The grunts were getting closer. He had to act fast. He needed a distraction, but what? He saw something on the ground next to the patrol. "Serendipity" he said smiling. A flash bang was wedged between slab of concrete by the elite. He carefully poked the battle rifle through the grate and fired.

The sudden blindness and defining sound threw the patrol into chaos. The grunts shirked and ran in circles blindly. The elite stumbled around roaring in anger. He kicked the grate off and jumped down. He quickly eliminated the patrol before they knew what was attacking them. He set his rifle down and slowly approached the pile of rubble. He could hear crying as he got closer. He moved the concrete till he made a hole big enough to see who was inside. He looked and was rewarded with another frightened scream. "Get away you monster! Leave us alone!" A small pebble shot out of the hole and bounced off his visor with a "plink". He realized that they were scared of him, but then again who wouldn't be scared of a Spartan in full armor. " Whoa, hey it's okay. Im not going to hurt you." He said in a clam voice. The two children still wouldn't budge. He looked around and seeing that there was no danger close by he reached up and removed his helmet. It made a quiet hiss and then a pop as the seal was removed. He set it on a nearby slab of concrete and carefully looked into the hole again. He raised an eyebrow at the young boy shielding a little girl behind him. " Being in that hole doesn't look very comfortable." He said with a small smile. the children visibly relaxed seeing that he wasn't an alien trying to kill them. He carefully moved more of the rubble to make the hole bigger for the two to climb out. He helped the little girl out after the boy had crawled out. They sat on a flat spot on the concrete next to where he set his helmet and watched him as he gathered grenades and ammo from the dead patrol. He went backed to them and knelt so he could be closer to their eye level. "What happened to your parents?" he asked. The boy simply looked at another pile of rubble. The Spartan looked and saw a hand sticking out of the rubble. " I'm sorry." he said looking at the boy again. "They told us to hide in the concrete, but then part of the building collapsed and…" He sniffled. " I take it that you two are siblings then?" The boy nodded "Im 11 and my little sister is 9." "What are your names?" He looked at the little girl who was now holding his helmet and quietly tracing her finger over the scratches. The boy pointed to himself, " I'm Mark and…" "My name is Cassy." He looked at the little girl who had finally spoken. "You have a nice name Cassy." He said, making her smile. Mark looked at the aliens and then back to the Spartan. " I've seen holovideos about you and the other spartans… you are much bigger then on the videos." He said with a small smile. "I get that a lot." The spartan said with a slight grin. Cassy looked at the blue visor on the helmet for a moment before turning to the Spartan. "What's your name?" she asked. He stiffened slightly. Spartan ll's don't normally let anyone know their name unless they trusted the person. "I'm Spartan 237 but you can call me Ryker." The girl made a small frown. "That's not your real name." Ryker chuckled "Nope because it's a secret." She sighed and handed him his helmet. "fine." He stood and looked at his hud. The extraction point was 3 kilometers to the south. He frowned at the thought of having to take two children through a hostile area to reach it. He looked back at the siblings. "We are heading for a pelican that will get us off the planet but it's a little far and there are still covenant here, so we need to be very quiet and careful okay?" The two nodded. Ryker took the lead as the two children followed closely behind.

The hud said that they were only a few blocks away and so far they have managed to avoid small patrols but now, there was no covenant to be seen. "Where are they?" Mark whispered. "I don't know…" Ryker stopped mid sentence when he saw a red blip appear on his radar and then fade. In the blink of an eye he spun around and covered the two children, shielding them with his own body. A sniper round hit his shields and knocked them down to 50%. The kids screamed when they saw him get hit. Ryker grabbed both of them in his massive arms and tucked them close to his chest as he started running. More sniper rounds peppered the ground around him as he dodged left and right. He sprinted faster, but it wasn't enough. A round blew a hole in the concrete just ahead of one of his boots causing it to catch and sending them into a high speed tumble. Ryker rotated his body so that he would take the impact. He waited till they had slowed enough that the children wouldn't get hurt. He tossed them from his arms in a way that they rolled behind a pile of metal and concrete. He was however moving still extremely fast. His body slammed into a half destroyed wall with enough force that he went clean through it. He tried to push himself up but his limbs wouldn't obey him. He heard Mark yelling his name. He had to keep them safe! "Mark, Cassy! Hide! hide…you…must…hide." Everything went dark.

The ranger grinned inside his helmet. He had expected only to be finishing off weak civilians and soldiers, but, a the demon was a welcomed surprise. The elite shouldered his beam rifle and used his jetpack to descend from the roof of the building he was hiding in. He approached the fallen demon and grabbed it by its chest plate. He lifted Ryker and slammed him into the concrete again. He snarled in pleasure as he activated his energy daggers on his wrist.

Mark watched in terror as the elite lifted his dagger to plunge it into the spartans heart. He looked around and grabbed a rock. "This is nuts." he said. He stood up and hurled the rock with all the strength he had while yelling Ryker's name. The rock flew straight and true and hit the elite square in the side of the head, making it lose its balance. The elite roared in anger and looked around for the source of that infernal rock. He saw the young human and smiled. "Now this is a surprise." he said with venom in his voice. "Weak effort from a WEAK piece of human filth!" The ranger roared as he ran at Mark. Mark stood his ground as the elite raised his gauntlet for a killing blow. A blur of green and gray tackled the elite to the ground. They rolled till Ryker was on top of the elite with his combat knife. The ranger used his long neck and head butted the spartan, cracking the visor and made Ryker jerk backwards. The elite shoved Ryker and pinned him to the ground. He stabbed downwards with the energy dagger but Ryker twisted and the dagger grazed his left side still cutting him but thankfully not to deeply. He freed his right arm and decked the elite in the side of the head. The elite grabbed him by his helmet and slammed it into the concrete dazing the spartan. He saw the blade again and jerked his body to the left reaching away, he suddenly felt a surge of what felt like fire come from his chest. He looked and saw that the dagger had punctured his right lung. He let out a cry of pain as the elite pushed it deeper. The elite bared its teeth in a smile. But then looked confused as its brain caught up and realized the combat knife sticking out of its neck. It tried to speak but only a gurgling sound came from it before it fell dead onto the spartan.

Mark and Cassy watched the elite die and then ran over to Ryker. They started to push on the dead elite, trying to get it off of him. Ryker pushed weakly and soon the elite slid off. The dagger was still in his chest so he grabbed the wrist of the elite and started to pull but quickly let go at the flare of pain that spread over his chest. "AAUUGGHH!" He looked at the siblings. "Mark, Cassy, I need you to look away okay?" They nodded and turned around. He gabbed the wrist again and pulled. He clenched his teeth trying not to yell again as the dagger came out. He laid there panting but it was just a wheezing sound. He sat up and crawled over to a wall so he could prop himself up. Mark and Cassy were by his side quickly. He reached for his can of biofoam to stop the now bleeding wound. His hands shock and he dropped the can but Mark quickly scooped it up. "I need you to apply it Mark." He said. Ryker quickly explained how to apply it and then sat there as the biofoam did its job. Mark held up the can, "there was only enough to cover up the wound on your chest." Ryker glanced at the cut on his side. It was still seeping and didn't show any sign of slowing. He sighed and keyed his comm. "UNSC WARHAMMER this is Sierra 237 requesting extraction. I have two civilians." He waited. "This is UNSC WARHAMMER mark you location and we'll send in a pelican as soon as we can." He frowned "Copy marking position." He had his HUD send a nav point to the ship. He looked at the two children. "We are going to have to wait for the pelican. I don't know how long that will be but just to be safe I want you two to stay out of sight till the ship comes." He reached for his Magnum on his thigh and pulled it off. "Mark I want you to take this, use it when there is no other option." Mark carefully picked up the gun. "What about you?" Ryker shifted but hissed as the motion caused pain. "I will fight off any covenant that comes close for as long as I can. If the pelican arrives and I can't get to it, I want you to run to it and don't look back." He picked up the dead elites carbine and set it in his lap then waited. Nearly 5 hours have passed and Ryker was getting weaker. His vision became blurry and finally he slipped into unconsciousness. Mark and Cassy sat behind an overturned car as the day slowly turned into night. Mark was nearly asleep when he heard a low rumbling sound coming closer. He woke Cassy and ran to Ryker. "Ryker! Ryker something's coming!" He shook Ryker's arm but it fell limply to the ground. "Ryker?" Mark said quietly. The rumbling go louder and soon a bright light flashed into existence directly above them. Mark shook Ryker again yelling at the top of his lungs for him to wake up. The light got closer to them and Mark could see figures coming towards them. Mark grabbed the gun and pointed it at the figures. He was about to pull the trigger when one of the figures called out. "Put the gun down! We're here to help." Mark hesitated. A Marine finally stepped out of the light. He came closer slowly, holding his hands out to show that he had no weapon. "It's okay kid." Mark lowered the gun and the man came up to him and knelt. "Are you alright?" He asked. Mark nodded. The man looked at the gun again. "Are you alone?" Mark shook his head " No my little sister is with me and so is the Spartan." The marine looked shocked. "Where is he?" Mark pointed to the broken wall behind him. The marine quickly ran to the wall. He saw Ryker and quickly rushed to him. "He won't wake up… why? Cassy said timidly. The marine saw the huge wound and the blood that covered the area around the spartan. "oh crap." He whispered. "I need a medic!" He yelled to the other men. They ran over and worked together to get the spartan onto the dropship. A medic applied more biofoam, checked his pulse and his face became grim at how faint it was. "Will he be okay?" Cassy asked. The medic shrugged "We'll see kid. We'll see."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

beep…..beep….beep….beep…beep (auuughhh, what is that sound?) beep….beep….beep…beep…beep (wait…I'm in a hospital…again.) He slowly opened his eyes. Thankfully someone had enough common sense to have the lights set to low. He heard a sound to his left and slowly turned his head. He raised an eyebrow when he saw Cassy sitting in a chair next to his bed coloring. He then noticed a small card on the side of the bed with the words "get well" written on the front with crayon. He chuckled at this but that quickly turned to a sharp pain in his side. The sudden noise made Cassy look up. "Yay, your awake!" She happily cheered as she climbed onto the bed. Ryker was very unprepared for the sudden hug that Cassy gave him. He was hesitant but then gently gave an awkward return hug. She backed away and Ryker looked at his heavily bandaged chest. He gave a quiet disapproving "Humf". He looked back at Cassy. "Where is your brother?" She pointed to his right. He turned and there was Mark, fast asleep in a chair. He felt a small smile crawl on his face. " What happened while I was out?" Cassy tapped her chin thinking. "Well after you fell asleep a big ship came and picked us up, but when we got to the really big ship they took you away and took me and Mark to another place. I wanted to go with you but they wouldn't let me. You wouldn't wake up and...and there was so much blood…." She frowned and her eyes started to water. Ryker was surprised that she wanted to be with him and that she even cared. He lifted his hand and gently wiped away a tear from her cheek. "It's okay Cassy, I'm alright." She gave him a small smile. " humm… what?" Ryker turned to see Mark waking up. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a few times. He looked at Ryker and smiled. "Your alive!" He said excitedly. "What can I say, I'm hard to keep down." He said grinning. The door on the right side of the room opened and a doctor walked through. "Glad to see that your awake now despite being out for a week." Ryker internally groaned that he was out of the fight that long. " Well doc how long till I'm free to go?" The doctor looked at his clip board. "I would say about another week but I find it hard to tell a spartan that he can't fight and expect them to listen.' He said dryly. "All in all that is not my decision." Ryker was about to ask a question but another figure walked into the room. "Hello Ryker." He sighed " Hello Dr. Halsey." Halsey took in Ryker's bandages and made a quiet tsk sound. Cassy and Mark looked at Halsey while she talked. She noticed the 'Get Well' card and that the two siblings that were standing in a rather protective manner by Ryker. "I see you've picked up a few friends on your last mission." She walked over to the siblings. "Now from what I understand you must be Mark and Cassy." The siblings nodded. She looked at Ryker and smiled, "I want to know why you two seem to have a velcro like attachment to my Spartan." Cassy and Mark looked at each other before Mark answered. " I am not really sure, its just that, we feel safe near him." Halsey nodded understanding. " I also heard that your parents died." Mark nodded sadly. "You both realize that you will be put into an orphanage and…." "No" Mark said cutting her off. She raised an eyebrow. "We want to fight. We want to fight with Ryker." He said boldly. Halsey gave a small smile. "I think we could work that out."

12 Years Later

"What are you, some kinda banana slug in the forest?! Move Faster! His breathing was heavy and labored as his boot pounded in the rhythmic beat of a full sprint. He could nearly see the rounds bitting at the dirt around his feet in his mind. The building was 100 yards dead ahead. If he could make it then he might stand a chance. He felt a round graze the shoulder pad on his ODST armor. That just motivated him to run faster. He suddenly had a feeling and leaped to the right just as a streak of violet accelerated plasma zipped past him. " Aww COME ON!" He yelled. He nearly reached the door way and just opted to dive through the already splintered door, tumbling in an explosion of wood. He quickly recovered and ran up the stairs but stopped to plant a mine on one of the steps. He reached the third floor by the time a muffled boom shock the building. He ran to a window and carefully looked outside. The roof of another building was a story below him. He checked his hud again for the coordinates of his evac. He groaned upon seeing that it was 4 blocks away. He turned around at the sound of loud barks and roars comping closer. "Time to go." He ran to the far wall and looked at the window in front of him. Just as the first brute rounded the corner he bolted, dropping the 2 primed grenades into the stairwell. He reached the window and jumped. He landed and rolled back into a run. He reached the end of that roof and jumped again, but the gap was too wide. He just had time to mutter a curse before landing in a dumpster.

He laid there for a couple of seconds testing to see if anything was broken. He was about to hop out when he hear a scuffling sound in the dumpster. He froze and pulled out his magnum. He aimed at a small pile of papers. It shuffled and a small tabby kitten popped its head out. He let out a sigh of relief and holstered the magnum. He checked if his motion tracker was clear before popping his head out to look. His comms crackled nearly making him jump out of the dumpster. "Mark where are you?" He smiled at the familiar voice. "Well I decided to go for a run and then try some parkour but I don't think I at pro level yet." He heard a groan through the comms " Har Har, how far out are you?" He was about to reply when he felt something tugging on his fatigues. He looked down and there was that tabby kitten again. It looked at him and mewed quietly as it purred. He reached down and gave it a pat on the head before picking it up. "Well my dear Cas I am about 3 block from you guys. I may be coming in hot and bearing gifts." He could nearly see Cassy rolling her eyes. "We will be ready and waiting." She replied. He clicked off his coms and looked around again to make sure it was still safe. The kitten in his hands purred. He held it up at eye level. "Listen you, be quiet or you gonna get us both killed." He only got a quiet mew in reply. He carefully tucked the kitten between the chest plate and his fatigues. Certain that it wasn't going to fall out he grabbed the silenced SMG from his back and proceeded quietly and carefully through the destroyed city.

Cassy shook her head in annoyance at her brothers joking antics. She turned to her squad. Two of the ODSTs were checking gear and weapons. Their sniper was sitting crosslegged on a shop providing look out and discourager for the enemy. Since the split in the covenant they now had two spec ops elites. Despite some hostilities at the beginning, they soon became welcomed members of the squad. In fact the two ODSTs checking the gear always bantered and even played poker with the elites. They had all come to trust on another. They were sent to pick up Mark after he had gone on a stealth mission to gather enemy intel. From what she heard during their last update is that he has the intel and the enemy wants it back. "Alright our V.I.P is on his way and he is going to be bringing company. Let get ready to welcome them." The ODST gave a thumbs up and grabbed a box of mines to prepare the welcome mat. The elites loaded and checked their carbines and wrist blades. She keyed her comm to the ODST on the shop roof. "Hawk, if anyone comes through those alleys and doesn't look like Mark…. blow their head off." "With pleasure ma'm." He replied.

Within a short while the "welcome mat was ready to roll out for their "guests". They only had to wait a few minutes before the sound of gun fire reached their ears. "Alright people, watch your areas and kill all hostiles!" Cassy yelled. A second later, Mark came sliding around the corner of a building, firing behind him as he ran. Cassy contacted the Pelican pilot to begin his approach to the LZ. Mark started running towards them as the first Brute rounded the corner. It didn't get far before a .50 caliber round tore its head from its body. Hawk kept firing at the oncoming hoard till he ran out of bullets. That at least gave Mark enough time to get past the mines before they went off. Brutes, jackals and grunts were shredded by the mines. The remaining covenant and Mark were knocked off their feet by the blast. Mark slowly picked himself of the ground shaking his head to clear the disorientation. The pelican dropped into the courtyard and opened fire with its chin mounted gun. Mark stood up and quickly glanced in the space between his chest plate. The small kitten's eyes were wide with fear but unharmed. He suddenly felt a lot of pain and fell back to his knees. Cassy ran to him and threw one of his arms over her shoulder and helped him to the pelican. The squad quickly jumped in. Once they were safely away from the city everyone relaxed. Cassy looked at Mark and gave him a light smack on the back of his helmet. He smiled but the pain nearly made him fall out of his seat. The Demolitions ODST "Pyro" caught him before he hit the floor. "Whoa there." Pyro said. Cassy looked at Marks back. A metal rod was sticking out of his back! "How bad?" Mark asked tiredly. "Well its not good, we have to remove a metal rod thats in your back." Pyro said bluntly. "Just do it." Mark said as he removed his helmet and pulled out a piece of cloth to bite down on. Pyro waved over on of the elites. It grabbed the rod and looked at Mark. He nodded and the elite yanked out the rod. Mark let out a muffled scream of agony. Pyro quickly injected biofoam into the hole sealing it. Mark let out a sigh as he felt the drugs start to numb the pain. He eased himself onto floor till he was laying down. He looked at Cassy and reached for the kitten. He pulled it out and put it into her hands where it nuzzled into her armor. "Told you I would had a present for you." He said with a smile. She looked at the kitten then at him with raised eyebrows. "I couldn't leave him." Mark said. Cassy gave him a small smile. He chuckled and then promptly fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

-I forgot to add this in previous chapters, I do not own Halo.

Bridge of the UNSC HELLHOUND

The captain paced around the holo table studying the data that Mark had brought back while Cassy stood off to the side. He finally stopped and turned to her. "Your brother did a good job at getting this data. This is showing weapon shipments, fuel depots, and ship movement. This is going to give us the edge we need to get rid of the Covenant." Cassy nodded " Leave it to my brother to take something thats not his." The captain chuckled. " How is he?" He asked. " Well considering he had a 2ft piece of Rebar stuck in his back, he seems to be doing good. He's resting up in the medical bay." Cassy said with a a smile. The Captain was about to speak when the ships A.I. appeared on the holo table. It's appearance was that of Celtic king in knight armor. " Sir, Shadow Squad has returned and we are clear to enter slipspace." The Captain turned to the A.I. "Thank you Ronas, tell the team leader to report to the bridge in 2 hours." He turned back to Cassy. " Corporal get some rest than report back before we arrive at Earth, dismissed." Cassy walked out of the bridge and jogged to the lift. She walked out into the hanger and quickly looked around. She spotted the black pelican and walked briskly towards it. She got there just as the loading ramp touched the ground. Three massive spartans II's walked down the ramp. They passed off a crate to a waiting squad of scientists who eagerly took it before hurrying back to their lab. She watched the spartans as they removed weapons, sat down and began cleaning them. Even though they had their helmets she could tell that they were talking to each other. She looked at her boots and spotted a empty shell casing. She grinned as she picked it up, bouncing it in the palm of her hand. She looked back at the spartans still cleaning their guns. She raised her arm slightly and threw the casing at the spartan with deep green and gray armor. Just before the casing touched the spartan's helmet his hand snapped up and caught it. His head turned slowly towards her till that amber visor was staring her down. Cassy just returned the stare, but after a minuet she raised two fingers and swiped them across her face. The three spartans mimicked the move to her. Cassy walked up to them and sat down on a crate next to the one she threw the shell at. The spartan looked at her then gently gave her a nudge with his massive shoulders. She gave him a smack on his shoulder plate. "Its good to see you again Ryker." Cassy said with a smile. Ryker looked at the two other spartans. Cassy roller her eyes at the spartans silent communication. Ryker turned towards Cassy and made a fist then raised the thumb, forefinger, and ring finger. She nodded that she understood the sign and got up from the crate she was sitting on. She walked up to the medical bay to check on Mark. When she got there she saw Mark attempting to sneak past the doctor whose back was turned. Cassy looked at Mark and back to the doctor. Mark saw what she was planing and glared. "Don't you even think about it." He mouthed. She gave him an evil grin. "Hey doc, how is the Lieutenant?" Mark quickly dashed and made a flying leap back into his hospital bed. The doctor and Cassy just watched the display with amused grins. The tabby kitten laying on the bed let out a hiss in protest at being disturbed. Mark just glared at them. The doctor let out an annoyed sigh, "Well he seems to be fine and frankly I would be grateful if you took him." In a few short minuets the siblings were walking out of the medical bay. Mark scratched the tabby's chin as they walked through the ship. "So what convinced my sister to come and visit?" She stared ahead as they walked. " The eagle has returned to the roost." She said simply. Mark almost tripped from the words. "Wait! What! They… really!" Cassy smiled, "Deck 9." Mark started walking faster as they neared the lift. As soon as the lift hit deck 9 the siblings quickly made their way to the "spartan barracks". The door had a small eagle stenciled on the right top corner. She rapped once the door and waited. It slid open and they walked in. Only two of the Two of the members of shadow squad were in the process of checking their armor and removing any damaged sections. The two spartans looked up as the siblings entered the room. Cassy nodded but her brother was less subtle. He smiled and jogged up to them. "Where is Ryker?" The spartan in blue and black armor nodded to the door that the siblings just walked through. Mark turned around just to see Ryker's familiar armor step into the room. He didn't make it two steps before the siblings rushed him, embracing him in a hug. Ryker stood there embracing the siblings for a second before a noisy mew interrupted them. He leaned back and looked at the furry intruder now sitting on Marks head. The blue spartan walked up to the group. He paused for a second before sticking our his forefinger and poking the fuzzy creature. Faster than greased lightning the kitten leaped off Marks head and onto the blue spartans shoulder pauldron. The blue spartan and the kitten stared at each other for a second before the spartan gave the kitten a gentle pat on the head. Ryker shook his head at his teammate as he walked over to an armor removal station. Cassy then noticed that his armor was covered in burns and had a nasty cut that went diagonally across the chest piece. " Looks like someone forgot how to dodge. " Mark commented with a smirk. Ryker turned his head a stared at Mark. The amber visor made that smirk leave in a hurry. Once all the armor was removed from his body he reached up and removed the helmet. Pausing for a second to inspect the helmet he sent the armor to the tech guys to fix. He looked at the black undersuit he currently wore and was glad to see that all the damage he took never reached the undersuit. He turned towards Cassy and found that she was staring at him. " What? " He asked puzzled. Cassy just smiled. " I just remember the first time I saw your face... I'm glad to see that no much has changed. " Cassy had to admit that he was still as handsome as he was 12 years ago. His short chocolate brown hair had a touch of gray at the temples now. His unnaturally blue eyes were still full of life but contained pain, sadness, and a coldness to them that promises no mercy to his enemies. His face had acquired more scars over the years. One was a bit more prominent because of the fact it looked like a set of claw marks went across his face. She learned from his teammate that during a firefight a brute chieftain had hit Ryker hard enough to knock off his helmet and send him crashing to the ground. The chieftain pinned Ryker down and tried to bite his head off. Ryker nearly got away but before he could the brute slashed his face hard enough to render him unconscious. Thankfully his teammates killed the brute before it killed Ryker. On the positive side, it made him look even more scary. He walked over to a locker and slipped a pair of boots and fatigues over the body suit. The two other spartans removed their armor and were soon similarly dressed as Ryker. Mark picked the kitten off the ground and walked over to the group. Ryker turned to him and spoke in a slightly gravelly voice. " Where and when did you find that? " Mark scratched the kitten as he told them about the recent mission. The spartan previously in blue armor gave a light chuckle at Marks story. " I find it interesting that you stopped in the middle of running for your life to grab that, " as he pointed at the kitten. Mark made a mock impression of being insulted. " I couldn't say no to this face, besides I think it likes you Vapor. " Vapor snorted and walked out the door with the other spartan in tow. Ryker smiled at the siblings. "Okay now lets do some catching up." he said as he sat on a crate. They sat and talked for an hour or so about missions and how their teams were doing. Cassy smiled and watched her brother and Ryker talk about guns and whatnot. Ryker paused " you seem all smiles. " She smiled again before speaking. " Im thinking about how we lost our family 12 years ago...I thought that they could never be replaced, but I was wrong. I have a family again. " Cassy looked down, embarrassed, wiped away a traitorous tear that fell on her cheek. She was shocked when she felt a pair of massive arms gently wrap around her in a hug. She looked at Ryker in surprise. He backed up a bit so he could look her in the eye. "Cassy as long as I am alive no one will dare hurt you like that ever again." Cassy was again surprised. She knew that spartans never really showed emotions except among themselves. Ryker was a bit more kind than the others but still, He rarely showed this much emotion. " Well, aren't you a big social butterfly. " She teased. Ryker gave her that amused fatherly look before taking a step back. " Alright you two I am heading to talk to the captain. " He said as he walked out the door. Cassy and Mark just stood in the room for a minutes seconds. Mark turned to her, "Well that was a surprise but I'm glade to see your emotionally balanced again." Cassy punched him in the arm. " Let's go get some food before I eat the cat."


	4. Chapter 4

p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"Their squad was sitting at a table in one of the corners of the mess. They grabbed a tray of food and arrived at the table to see Pyro flicking peas at Hawk. Hawk was calmly using a small plate to block the small projectiles. The two elite brothers Thar'os and Rtyre Kraramee just watched on with some amusement. Kieth noticed them as they sat down, " How are you doing Mark?" Mark rolled his shoulder and replied, " They did a great job despite the fact I was turned into a shish kebab." The elites chuckled at his nonchalant response. Classy slowly ate her food while looking around the mess. Mark on the other hand was scarfing down his food as if it was his last meal. Cassy spotted Ryker as he walked into the mess. She watched him make his way to a table and sit with the rest of his squad. She realized that she wasn't the only one watching. "Freaks." Kieth muttered and went back to eating. Cassy and Mark had been very careful the past few years about their secret. Some members of the team were no fans of the Spartans. They finished eating and then headed off to their room for some sleep. /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"3 days later. /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"Cassy was running on a treadmill in the ships gym while the rest of the squad did weights and sparing. She enjoyed this small "alone time" to think and let her mind wander. She had just started to get into a rhythm when the ships on board A.I appeared on the treadmills small holo emitter. "Hello Ronas, what can I do for you today? She asked. Ronas nodded " The captain requests you and your squad to report to the briefing room in 30 min." He than disappeared. She grabbed a towel and walked to her team to relay the message./span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" In 30min they we in the briefing room awaiting the captain. The door opened and the 3 members of Shadow squad walked in with the captain. They quickly saluted and sat back down. Ryker sat across from Cassy. The lights dimmed and soon the holo table's blue glow filled the room. The captain cleared his threat and began. " I have received word from High Comm about a high value target within our area." The table hummed and a picture of a large Brute appeared. " This is Barrock, a ruthless War chief that is responsible for the raids that killed millions and for some missing human personnel." The captain pause before continuing. " Thanks to the efforts of Fire team Eclipse recovering that data, we now know where Barrock is." The image on the table changed to show a moon orbiting a glasses planet. " This is M-35, also know as Algerion. For some reason unknown, the covenant over looked this moon and left it untouched. Algerion is a thickly forest moon with large mountains. It's was not heavily colonized, just a few small villages, because of its over all cold climate, short days and wildlife." /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"The captain looked around the table. "Your mission is to infiltrate Barrocks hideout. Secure the 5 huragok that his has, and kill Barrock if the opportunity presents itself." The room was quite for a moment before Ryker spoke. " How are we getting in?" The captain smiled. "You will be inserted via a new type of drop pod. Smaller, and covered top to bottom in stealth tech." Fireteam Eclipse all had large grins on their faces. Ryker spoke again. "Extraction?" The picture on the table changed again. Ronan waved a had at the pelican displayed. "The new stealth drop ship." Ryker nodded approvingly. The captain stood tall and nodded. "You have your order, now make that monster pay." /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"The two squads gathered in the loading bay for the new drop pods. Each of them was armored up and were just going over their weapons and gear. Cassy walked over to the spartan team fully aware of the eyes of her team mates burning into the back of her head. Ryker saw her and took a step to her. "Ryker, the captain wanted me to give this to you." She held up an A.I chip. He gently grabbed it and looked at it. Cassy sighed and then continued. "He also put me in charge of the mission." Ryker tilted his head slightly to the side. She smiled. "I am appointing you as second in command." He nodded and gave her a salute. "Understood ma'am." She turned and walked back to her squad. /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"span style="color: #454545;"spanRyker looked at the chip as he turned to his team. He finally put the chip into the slot on the back of his helmet. An icy feeling shot down his spine and he grabbed his head for a second. A male Nordic accent entered his ears. " Not bad, bio readings check out and armor is ready to go." A screen appeared on the top left of his hud showing a large man in what looked like ad bowmen's garb with a dappled patterned cloak./span/spanspan style="color: #454545;"span "Allow me to introduce myself. I am UNSC A.I -NS/352 or kalis." Kalis took a short bow. The other two Spartans winked green on his light display indicating that they heard the introduction. Kalis continued. "I am to assist your team for the mission." Ryker nodded. Satisfied that things were in order Kalis disappeared. Ryker picked up his shotgun and placed it in his pod. Vapor opened a personal channel for his team. "So how do the chain of command flow this time?" Ryker turned to him. "Corporal Williams is leading and I am her second in command." Vapor nodded with approval. Ryker stepped closer to them. "Vapor I want to ask you to do something for me. If this mission goes south I want you to take care of Cassy and Mark." Vapor set a hand on Rykers shoulder. That spoke volumes between them. "I promise." Vapor said with determination. He swiped two fingers across his face plate and Ryker returned the spartan smile. /span/span/span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"A loud alarm brought them back into reality. The captains voice came over the com. "Over the drop zone in 3." The group quickly got into the pods. Cassy checked in with everyone. She took a deep breath as the pods rotated into position. She mentally counted down. A loud boom accompanied by a huge jolt signaled that they were away. As they fell she marked their landing location right into the middle of a massive rain storm, using it for cover. /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"The quiet sound of rain was drowned out by the crashes of the pods breaking through the trees and coming to a stop. The hatch of the pod broke open and Mark carefully poked his head out. Seeing it was clear he cleaned out the pod and started hiking to the rendezvous point on his hud. He had hiked about 2 miles before he stopped to take a drink from his canteen. Before he could put his helmet back on a low deep growl sounded behind him. He slowly turned around and saw two glowing green eyes staring at him from within the bushes. He reached for his magnum but the thing leaped out and struck him. It knocked the gun from his hands and pinned him against a tree. He just managed to get his armored forearm in front of him as the beast bit down. He made a quick mental note to thank the tech heads that invented this stuff. Mark yelled in pain as the large predator held onto his arm and swung him to the right, tossing him. He rolled and quickly got to his feet. The beast leaped again but Mark grabbed his combat knife, stepped to the side and slashed at the beast. The animal howled in pain as its shoulder was split open. It looked at Mark and snarled. He prepared himself for the beast to attack again, but paused when he saw that it was cowering and slowly backing away before completely turning and running. "Ha! That's right run away you coward!" He said proudly. Mark paused to wipe the blood off the blade and put it back in its sheath before turning around. He walked face first into a metal object, hard enough to knock him on his butt. He looked up and saw Ranger standing there with his head tilted in what appeared as amusement. Mark groaned. "That's why it ran off." He face palmed. The Spartan nodded and offered Mark a hand. /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545; min-height: 20.3px;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;" /span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"span style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"Within an hour the entire team was at the rendezvous point. Pyro and hawk just snickered when they saw Mark arrive covered in mud. He just scowled at them and began to clean his gear. Cassy and Ryker were standing next to a large stump with a map spread out on top of it. They nodded and she folded up the map as they walked over to the group. "The hideout is five miles to the north. We have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of forest and mud to slog through. You have 10 mins to get ready before we move out." She quickly told them. They quickly sorted the gear and set off./span/span/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;" /p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"strongspan style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;".../span/span/strong/p  
p style="font-family: HelveticaNeue; text-size-adjust: auto; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; color: #454545;"strongspan style="font-size: 15px;"span style="font-family: Times;"Sorry this chapter is a little short. But worry not! The next one will be full of fighting./span/span/strong/p 


	5. Chapter 4 rewrite

(I saw the massive typo fault I my last chapter. My tablet went nuts,that was the result. So here is a fixed chapter.)

Their squad was sitting at a table in one of the corners of the mess. They grabbed a tray of food and arrived at the table to see Pyro flicking peas at Hawk. Hawk was calmly using a small plate to block the small projectiles. The two elite brothers Thar'os and Rtyre Kraramee just watched on with some amusement. Kieth noticed them as they sat down, " How are you doing Mark?" Mark rolled his shoulder and replied, " They did a great job despite the fact I was turned into a shish kebab." The elites chuckled at his nonchalant response. Classy slowly ate her food while looking around the mess. Mark on the other hand was scarfing down his food as if it was his last meal. Cassy spotted Ryker as he walked into the mess. She watched him make his way to a table and sit with the rest of his squad. She realized that she wasn't the only one watching. "Freaks." Kieth muttered and went back to eating. Cassy and Mark had been very careful the past few years about their secret. Some members of the team were no fans of the Spartans. They finished eating and then headed off to their room for some sleep.

3 days later.

Cassy was running on a treadmill in the ships gym while the rest of the squad did weights and sparing. She enjoyed this small "alone time" to think and let her mind wander. She had just started to get into a rhythm when the ships on board A.I appeared on the treadmills small holo emitter. "Hello Ronas, what can I do for you today? She asked. Ronas nodded " The captain requests you and your squad to report to the briefing room in 30 min." He than disappeared. She grabbed a towel and walked to her team to relay the message.

In 30min they we in the briefing room awaiting the captain. The door opened and the 3 members of Shadow squad walked in with the captain. They quickly saluted and sat back down. Ryker sat across from Cassy. The lights dimmed and soon the holo table's blue glow filled the room. The captain cleared his threat and began. " I have received word from High Comm about a high value target within our area." The table hummed and a picture of a large Brute appeared. " This is Barrock, a ruthless War chief that is responsible for the raids that killed millions and for some missing human personnel." The captain pause before continuing. " Thanks to the efforts of Fire team Eclipse recovering that data, we now know where Barrock is." The image on the table changed to show a moon orbiting a glasses planet. " This is M-35, also know as Algerion. For some reason unknown, the covenant over looked this moon and left it untouched. Algerion is a thickly forest moon with large mountains. It's was not heavily colonized, just a few small villages, because of its over all cold climate, short days and wildlife."

The captain looked around the table. "Your mission is to infiltrate Barrocks hideout. Secure the 5 huragok that his has, and kill Barrock if the opportunity presents itself." The room was quite for a moment before Ryker spoke. " How are we getting in?" The captain smiled. "You will be inserted via a new type of drop pod. Smaller, and covered top to bottom in stealth tech." Fireteam Eclipse all had large grins on their faces. Ryker spoke again. "Extraction?" The picture on the table changed again. Ronan waved a had at the pelican displayed. "The new stealth drop ship." Ryker nodded approvingly. The captain stood tall and nodded. "You have your order, now make that monster pay."

The two squads gathered in the loading bay for the new drop pods. Each of them was armored up and were just going over their weapons and gear. Cassy walked over to the spartan team fully aware of the eyes of her team mates burning into the back of her head. Ryker saw her and took a step to her. "Ryker, the captain wanted me to give this to you." She held up an A.I chip. He gently grabbed it and looked at it. Cassy sighed and then continued. "He also put me in charge of the mission." Ryker tilted his head slightly to the side. She smiled. "I am appointing you as second in command." He nodded and gave her a salute. "Understood ma'am." She turned and walked back to her squad.

Ryker looked at the chip as he turned to his team. He finally put the chip into the slot on the back of his helmet. An icy feeling shot down his spine and he grabbed his head for a second. A male Nordic accent entered his ears. " Not bad, bio readings check out and armor is ready to go." A screen appeared on the top left of his hud showing a large man in steel Nordic armor decorated with furs and patterns resembling a dragon. He had a tattoo that went over the right eye and a large great sword on his back. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am UNSC A.I -NS/352 or kalis Malstrom." Kalis took a short bow. The other two Spartans winked green on his light display indicating that they heard the introduction. Kalis continued. "I am to assist your team for the mission." Ryker nodded. Satisfied that things were in order Kalis disappeared. Ryker picked up his shotgun and placed it in his pod. Vapor opened a personal channel for his team. "So how do the chain of command flow this time?" Ryker turned to him. "Corporal Williams is leading and I am her second in command." Vapor nodded with approval. Ryker stepped closer to them. "Vapor I want to ask you to do something for me. If this mission goes south I want you to take care of Cassy and Mark." Vapor set a hand on Rykers shoulder. That spoke volumes between them. "I promise." Vapor said with determination. He swiped two fingers across his face plate and Ryker returned the spartan smile.

A loud alarm brought them back into reality. The captains voice came over the com. "Over the drop zone in 3." The group quickly got into the pods. Cassy checked in with everyone. She took a deep breath as the pods rotated into position. She mentally counted down. A loud boom accompanied by a huge jolt signaled that they were away. As they fell she marked their landing location right into the middle of a massive rain storm, using it for cover.

The quiet sound of rain was drowned out by the crashes of the pods breaking through the trees and coming to a stop. The hatch of the pod broke open and Mark carefully poked his head out. Seeing it was clear he cleaned out the pod and started hiking to the rendezvous point on his hud. He had hiked about 2 miles before he stopped to take a drink from his canteen. Before he could put his helmet back on a low deep growl sounded behind him. He slowly turned around and saw two glowing green eyes staring at him from within the bushes. He reached for his magnum but the thing leaped out and struck him. It knocked the gun from his hands and pinned him against a tree. He just managed to get his armored forearm in front of him as the beast bit down. He made a quick mental note to thank the tech heads that invented this stuff. Mark yelled in pain as the large predator held onto his arm and swung him to the right, tossing him. He rolled and quickly got to his feet. The beast leaped again but Mark grabbed his combat knife, stepped to the side and slashed at the beast. The animal howled in pain as its shoulder was split open. It looked at Mark and snarled. He prepared himself for the beast to attack again, but paused when he saw that it was cowering and slowly backing away before completely turning and running. "Ha! That's right run away you coward!" He said proudly. Mark paused to wipe the blood off the blade and put it back in its sheath before turning around. He walked face first into a metal object, hard enough to knock him on his butt. He looked up and saw Ranger standing there with his head tilted in what appeared as amusement. Mark groaned. "That's why it ran off." He face palmed. The Spartan nodded and offered Mark a hand.

Within an hour the entire team was at the rendezvous point. Pyro and hawk just snickered when they saw Mark arrive covered in mud. He just scowled at them and began to clean his gear. Cassy and Ryker were standing next to a large stump with a map spread out on top of it. They nodded and she folded up the map as they walked over to the group. "The hideout is five miles to the north. We have a lot of ground to cover and a lot of forest and mud to slog through. You have 10 mins to get ready before we move out." She quickly told them. They quickly sorted the gear and set off.


	6. Chapter 5

The trek through the rain filled forest was not an easy one. They spent a majority of the hills they climbed skidding and sliding back down the muddy slope. They took a break around noon the following day.

Cassy and Ryker were looking at the map again while the rest of them checked their gear and rested. Mark moved his sore arm around. "Stupid cat thingy." He grumbled under his breath. He looked back up as Cassy got their attention. "We are about 2 clicks away from the target. From now on minimal use of the com and hand signals." They all nodded in agreement.

As the drew closer they moved with extra caution and had their weapons in a ready position. Hawk, who was scouting ahead, came jogging back. " There are about 10 guards outside the structure. About 6 grunts, a sniper in an alcove at the top and 3 brutes. " Cassy nodded and turned to Ryker. "Think you can take care of the apes?" Ryker tilted his head for a second and nodded before standing up with the other two spartans and disappeared into the forest. She looked back at the squad . " Take the twins and get rid of the grunts and sniper. " She said pointing to Hawk. The three of them nodded before disappearing into the forest.

The brute captain walked by the entrance for what seemed like the billionth time today. He heard a sound and stopped. He sniffed the air. In the blink of an eye he spun around and slammed his fist into Vapor, who was sneaking up behind him, sending him flying into a wall. Before the brute could finish Vapor off, it was knocked to the ground by a charging Spartan. The spartan had the brute in a headlock and with a violent jerk Ranger snapped the brutes neck. He stood up and walked over to Vapor who was slowly getting back to his feet. "Are you good?" He asked Vapor. Vapor nodded, " Just got the air knocked out of me. " He wheezed.

With the outside guards eliminated they slowly went inside the ruins. Cassy took the lead with Keith right next to her. The group stopped when they came to room with multiple halls. Cassy looked at Ryker. " Kalis, any idea which hall to choose? " He asked the A.I. There was a pause. "With seismic scan I retrieved from Vapors collision with the building, the hall that leads deeper into the ruins is the one in your right." He stated. Ryker motioned to the door that Kalis had pointed out. They moved slowly and carefully through the maze of tunnels.

After coming across a patrol or two they reached the entrance to a large room. Ranger took out fiber optic camera and slid it under the door. He saw what looked like thirty to fifty brutes and a scattering of jackels and grunts gathered around a raised platform where a larger brute stood. Ranger withdrew the camera. "Target is inside along with at least 40 troops." He reported.

Cassy frowned, " We need to secure the engineers first. " She stated. " I managed to hack into their comms and find the location of the engineers. " Kalis pipped in. Cassy nodded. " Good, but I have no doubt that as soon as we grab them we are going to need a quick get away plan. " She stated while she walked over to Pyro. " let's rig the door as a little present from us to buy us more time. "

In a few minutes the door was set to blow with a hearty around of explosives to vaporize anyone that opened it. They quietly retreated and made their way to the objective.

They made it to another large room with little to no resistance. Slightly glancing into the room and seeing only a few brutes and jackels milling about seemed like a stroke of luck. Cassy ordered the group to advance quietly and silently. When Ryker was close to the brute captain when he struck. The brute fell to the ground with a gurgle as it died. The jackels raised their weapons but were quickly gunned down by the rest of the team. They proceeded to the door on the other side of the room and as the door opened they shot the lone sentry guarding the Huragok.

The five Huragok bunched up and were making small frightened sounds. Cassy gestured towards them. "Do your thing Mark." He nodded and approached the aliens slowly. While Mark calmed them down the rest of the squad policed any grenades and ammo from the dead. Mark called back to Cassy " Alright they are good and we need to get out of here. " He started walking away but stopped when he realised that the engineers were not behind him. " Are you kidding me? " He said as he reached in his bag. He walked back up to them and held up a scrambled rubix cube. The engineers suddenly swarmed Mark trying to get the cube. He leaped away yelling , "Nooooo!"

Cassy just smiled and turned to the team. "It will not be long until they notice that their prize has gone missing. We need to book it to the LZ before that happens. We still have stealth on our side so that gives us the advantage. She nodded to Ryker. "Divide your squad into recon and rear security." He have a slight nod in acknowledgement. Within A few minutes they were ready to bug out.


	7. Chapter 6

When I see you again

As they made their way back through the ruins they came across very few covenant patrols. "So far so good." Hawk quietly said. They were getting closer to the entrance they came in when a jackal walked around the corner ahead of the group. It did a double take and let out a short screech . Vapor tackled it and silenced it with his knife but the damage was already done.

A massive roar shattered the quiet halls. "Move it!" Cassy yelled. They stared running and dragging the engineers down the halls. A deafening boom shook the building a few seconds later. Dust and small building debris fell on the squad. "Do you think you put enough explosives on that door Pyro?" Mark asked sarcastically. The large African man just chuckled and replied " There is no such thing as too much. "

They kept running as the roars got louder and one or twice a plasma round would hit a wall near them. Ryker was taking up the rear and would turn and toss a grenade back down the hall, buying them more time. They were nearing the entrance they had come in earlier when a fuel rod round streaked over their heads and impacted the ceiling.

Pyro, Hawk, Ranger, the five engineers, and the Kraramee brothers managed to make it outside before the ceiling started to collapse. Ryker grabbed Casey and yanked her towards him as a large piece of ceiling attempted to crush her. She gave him a quick pat on the arm to tell him that she was okay before taking off down another hall with Mark, Keith, Vapor, and Ryker in tow. Pyro called out over the comms. " Are you guys alright? " Casey quickly keyed her com to reply. " We're good. Start heading to the extraction point. We will meet you there. " She placed back as Ryker stopped and fired back down the hall before running again. "Roger that, but the Spartan says he will see if there is another entrance outside and meet you there to provide support." Pyro replied. Casey knew there was no arguing with the quite Spartan. "Copy, good luck. " She keyed back.

They bolted around another corner and slid to a stop. A large narrow stone bridge spanned the massive crevasse in front of them. It seemed to have no bottom and was as dark as a black hole. The bridge was in a crumbling state and looked ready to give out at any second. " Anyone see another way around? " Keith gasped out. Ryker replied with a no.

The group had no time to look again before plasma and spike rounds were peppering the walls around them. "Runing across the bridge is our only option!" He called out between reloading. Casey quickly dished out the plan. " On my mark, Vapor you take point and Ryker you take up the rear. " They shifted positions and signaled with a green light in their helmets that they were ready. "Mark!" And with her command they ran as fast as they could go.

Vapor made it across well before the others and was providing covering fire. The rest of them had nearly made it to the middle when an explosion in front of them blew a seven foot chunk out of the bridge. Keith didn't even pause and did a running leap across the gap. He landed with a foot to spare. Mark leaped but landed slightly short but managed to haul himself up. He turned to Casey and Ryker. "Watch out!" He screamed. Before Casey could do anything, Ryker placed himself in front of her. A burst of plasma impacted his shield causing it to overload and fail.

Cassy raised her DMR and shot the grunt in the head. A brute captain raised his spiker and let loose a couple rounds at her. She felt one graze her thigh deep enough to send her to the ground with a cry of pain. She heard Ryker grunt and the next thing she knew was sailing through the air and landed in Keith's arms. She frantically searched for Ryker. She spotted him going toe to toe with a massive brute.

"Barrock" she cursed with venom in her voice. The massive brute was swinging his gravity hammer but utilizing the blade side. He wasn't dumb enough to take out the bridge he was standing on. Ryker seemed to be doing okay. He blasted Barrock's side taking out his shields but lost the gun when Barrock attempted to slam him with a backhand.

Ryker grabbed his combat knife and stabbed him in the small gap between his front and rear chest plates. The brute roared in anger and grabbed the Spartan by his throat. Ryker grabbed the brutes spiker sidearm and shot him in the chest causing the brute to drop him. He caught himself and ran towards the gap.

Vapor was taking out as many as he could but his stomach dropped when he heard his gun make a click sound. He checked his ammunition pouches again but found no ammo. He looked up as he heard a cry of agony.

Ryker was laying on the ground inches away from the gap unable to move because of a spike round that went through his leg pinning him to the bridge. Mark raised his assault rifle and fired at Barrock. The Chieftan tossed a bubble shield in front of him. Covering him and Ryker from Marks bullets.

Barrock walked up to Ryker, reached down and pulled him up by his throat. The action of his leg being ripped off the spike caused him to yell again in pain. The bubble shield ran out and disappeared, but the brute activated his overshields. He held Ryker over the edge of the bridge laughing as he heard the other humans cry out in fear.

Keith couldn't shoot the brute in fear of him dropping Ryker and Mark had no clear shot. "Mark...Cassy... The siblings heard him weakly through the comms. Before they could reply he continued. " The mission comes first. Get out of here. " Cassy keyed her comm. " No we will not leave you! I won't leave you! " She felt hot tears run down her cheeks. " You don't have a choice. " He said gasping. She could only watch in horror and he looked at them. " Take care of each other and remember I love you both. "

In the blink of an eye Ryker grabbed his combat knife and rammed it in a gap near the Chieftans neck. Barrock roared and thrashed around while Ryker grabbed on to the brute using his weight to send them both over the edge. " Nooo! Dad!!!! " Cassy screamed as she tried to leap for him. Marks large arms caught her and pulled her to the exit.


	8. chapter 7

Chapter 7

A Fathers message

The world seemed to fade and become muffled to her. She couldn't make her limbs obey her commands. Her mind was screaming at her to get to cover and return fire but her heart was also demanding that she attempt to get her father.

Before she could take any action she felt herself being picked up and carried. She looked up to see Vapor's familiar visor. Cassy was about to voice her objection when he cut her off, "Your injury will slow you down and I'm not about to break my promise to your father."

They emerged from the ruins to see stars filling the sky above them. Mark saw Vapor and Ranger glance at each other before take up positions at the rear of the group. He glanced at his HUD displaying the evac point 2 clicks away. His armor felt heavy on his shoulders and he couldn't get the image of Ryker going over the edge of the bridge out of his mind. He shook his head angrily. They were still in enemy territory and could still loose the engineers.

They managed to evade any patrols and quickly arrived at the evac point. Vapor set Cassy against a rock while he went to keep watch till their ride arrived. Mark took a moment to check on the engineers before looking for his sister. He saw her sitting against a rock examining the wound on her leg.

She gently touched the edges of the wound but drew her hand back with a venomous hiss. She heard someone kneel in front of her and looked up to see her brother. He pulled out the medical kit that he always had and began dressing her wound. They sat there quietly till he finished. He was about to get up but Cassy pulled him into a hug. He didn't fight it but rather returned it. "We will get him back sis." He told her quietly.

" He's not dead Mark, I just know he's not. " She replied

The sound of the dropship made them break apart. Keith walked over and helped her to her feet. " We have questions that need answers. " He stated. She gave a sigh and nodded.

"Later when we are back in the ship. I'll tell you everything." She said with a defeated tone.

The ride seemed to last only a few mins before she was whisked away to the infirmary. The doctors quickly stitched her up and the team but Vapor had taken more damage than he let on and required surgery for a broken shoulder and a collapsed lung.

She went back to her quarters to shower and that was when she finally let the tears fall. She cried and cursed as she processed the last 24 hours. She ran the battle over and over in her head, trying to find a way that it all could have ended differently. She cried harder knowing that she lost her family again!

A beeping noise pulled her from her despair that threatened to drown her. She got out of the shower and quickly slipped some clothes on and found the source of the noise coming from the terminal at her desk. She tapped on the icon flashing on its surface. A video popped up showing Ryker without his helmet. Her breath caught in her throat. He cleared his throat before speaking.

" Cassy, I thought that I should leave you this message before we depart on this mission. " He paused. " I wanted to let you know that I am so lucky to be the proud father of such amazing children. I think back to the day when I found you and your brother and wonder if I would have done anything differently... I wouldn't change anything. You have brought a joy to my life that I thought was gone forever. I have lost too many of my brothers and sisters and I thought I was never going to be able to feel that feeling again. You are my joy and my greatest treasure. I have watched you and your brother excel beyond others in your training and I want you to know that I am very proud. " He coughed. She smiled knowing that he hated talking for too long. " Keep fighting and remember that you're a warrior, warriors don't give up and they don't back down. They press forward and fight for those who can't. " He looked into the camera for a moment as if he was looking at her and not the lens. He then let out a sigh and put his hand to his lips before pretending to blow her a kiss.

Without thinking she raised her hand pretending to catch it and placed it on her heart as tears streaked her face. The video ended and she finally let out a breath that she didn't realize she was holding.

The computer dimmed and the ship's AI appeared on the desk. "He asked me to show you and your brother this if something were to happen to him." He said quietly. He looked up at her. " I am very sorry. "

She blinked and wiped away her tears. " He's not dead. I know he's not. " She said with a fire in her tone as she turned to leave her quarters. She paused and turned back to the AI.

" contact my team and have them meet me outside of the Eagles gate. "

Ronas smiled knowing what door she was speaking about. He sent the message before disappearing from the desk.


End file.
